Adrien Rabiot has had an interesting few months.
It was a surprise to many when the PSG midfielder was left out of Didier Deschamps’ France squad for the World Cup and when he refused to go on the reserves list it saw almost a national sporting scandal.
Rabiot’s character was torn to shreds, the French media pondered that this was another sign of poor attitude from footballers, and some reported it’d be difficult for the player to continue in Ligue 1.
Since then, France have won the World Cup, and Rabiot has started the Ligue 1 season without a problem. He’s in the current L’Equipe Team of the Week for the division, and the joint 5th best player in Ligue 1, based on average ratings, so far.
One issue does remain… Adrien Rabiot still hasn’t extended his PSG contract, which is due to end in June.
Barcelona have been repeatedly linked in both the French and Spanish media, and the idea of signing the Frenchman for free is obviously tempting.
There’s no issue about treading carefully around PSG and the Ligue 1 side throwing their weight around, because they’ve already used that threat by signing Neymar after paying his Barcelona buyout clause.
PSG don’t have any more real threats to make which would concern Barca. The French club have multiplied their contacts with Rabiot’s mother Veronique, explain L’Equipe on Tuesday, but she’d imagined her son signing for Barcelona even in the last window.
Talks on a renewal haven’t progressed, yet in Paris they feel some confidence because it’s thought Rabiot is very attached to the city and club. That doesn’t stop their ‘cold sweats’ over potentially losing him to Barcelona or elsewhere.
